today, the senate turns to the confirmation of these two united states district judges. before i address that issue, i express my condolences to the victims and family in newtown, connecticut. as a nation, we join together to express our grief and to offer support and comfort to this community. our thoughts and prayers are with families who have suffered from this senseless act. from time to time, i've given my colleagues an update regarding the facts of judicial confirmations. and despite our steady progress on confirmations, we continue to hear complaints from bar associations, interest groups, editorial boards, and even some fellow senators. of course, these are the same groups that remain silent or at the time cheered on the efforts to block judicial nominees of the previous president. multiple filibusters, failures to hold hearings, pocket filibusters of one sort or another, and other tactics of delay and obstruction were routinely used against prech's nominees. by the end of his presidency, president bush had 53 nominees that were not confirmed. that is, nearly 1 o